Alright here is pretty much what should be the "final" word on the subject, which is to say there probably won't be one. Simply put the bottom line is that there is more to this entire issue than what the ending was. It comes down to the developers promising that the ending of ME3 would not be an "A B or C" choice. They also promised that all of the questions involved in the series up until this point would be answered. A lot of the rage comes from an app that was released after the fact giving behind the scenes interviews where the Devs flat out said that they lied about everything that was said ahead of time, that they never had any intention of answering all the questions as promised, etc...
People seem to have this bizzare idea that this is just about a truely terrible ending, and really it's not. There is so much more to it than that, and that is why the problem is unlikely to go away as long as EA/Bioware exists, and I expect this issue to constantly resurface when new games are released by them, and every time they make a promise. UNLESS EA/Bioware changes the ending which they should do at this point.
The refusal to change the ending has also inspired a lot of rage, because at the end of the day you have pressure from the industry for EA/Bioware to not cave in simply because in doing so it would encourage fans to rally more often against the industry when it does something like this. A lot of the anger comes from EA/Bioware and the industry trying to claim "creative integrity" when in reality there is evidence from their own word in the app and such, not to mention the leaks, that they themselves had no integrity with the ending and were changing things around at the last minute while lying, and going with an idea suggested by a young fanboy that got taped to the door of one of the higher ups. At the end of the day the entire problem was them sacrificing creative integrity in order to turn Mass Effect from a trilogy into an ongoing franchise where they could string out the central questions of the series indefinatly, rather than having to do any real work on the series and you know, come up with something fresh within the same universe.
This raises the question of course as to how they should have ended the series. The answer to that is rather straightforward. Mass Effect generally follows a pattern, especially Mass Effect 3. That is to say that it gives you a nasty situation where you ultimatly have to make a desician between two less than ideal alternatives, and let your own morality and desired character arc affect Shepard's desician, HOWEVER there is always another solution that represents a sort of "true" path that overrides "Paragon" and "Renegade" options and gives you an ideal "heroic" outcome where you save everyone.
To put things into the context of Mass Effect 3, you might be faced with a situation where you have the choice of say saving an alien race and getting them as an ally for the final battle, or saving an agent and getting him and his men as allies. However if you played previous games and a certain companion of yours had their side mission completed and survived the mission at the end of ME2 your able to save both, and have the added benefit of that companion throwing into your overall alliance as well.
The problem with the ME3 ending above and beyond everything is that all of the options your given suck in their own distinct and special way. What's more all of them intentionally "write out" Shepard (at best with a "maybe" survival). There is no "good" or even upbeat outcome, and that doesn't fit within the theme of the series where as an epic hero the whole point of Commander Shepard is that he/she routinely wins the no win scenario. While it's impossible to track every paticular desician made up until that point (though to be fair Bioware DID promise that, which makes a failure to deliver their fault), there should be a perfect "true" ending for those who played the entire series and did everything right. Basically if you managed to save all your companions in ME2, gather pretty much all of the assets in M3, etc... there should be an ending where the good guys start seriously kicking butt on the Reapers since at this point you've allegedly got stuff based on their own technology, as well as things even they have never fought before like (if I remember) what amount to singularity warheads via one of the assets. At the end of the day the way a perfect scenario would largely play out is that The Reapers wind up facing a united galaxy (something they try and avoid) with technology being developed that is equal to, or even beginning to surpass their own. Earth flat out drives off The Reapers, learns their secrets, and the galaxy is saved, should very much be an option. Let Shepard get a medal and retire or wind up an Admiral, or acting as the new head of the Spectres or whatever.
The point here being that the endings are crap, but might stand better if the game followed it's existing spirit that there is ALWAYS a way out for a dedicated player who has been following the series from the beginning.
To be honest I think a good part of the problem was also that EA/Bioware got too fixated on trying to make Mass Effect self contained so people wouldn't feel like they were "missing out" too much by not playing the other games. However that kind of continuity was part of the point of the series, and truthfully in Mass Effect 3 the pattern should have continued up to the ending where there was a fitting, happy ending. The existing endings on the other hand work for a player who ONLY played ME3 with a ME3 Shepard and has through the entire game been faced with either/or situations as opposed to having allies from previous games save the day if you did all their stuff and kept them alive.
To restore good will, what EA/Bioware needs to do is pretty much create that ending for the people who had been playing a character through all 3 games. Not extend a terri-bad "choose your own suckage" ending and insult everyone paying attention.
What's more I think it's important for the industry to concede to the wishes of the customers when something like this happens (especially given the reveals in that app, and the promises that were made).
People who never really "got it" probably will continue to be tired of this, but honestly I don't think it's going to go away. Especially seeing as EA/Bioware seems intent on doing more with the series. When you build a fanatical fanbase, lie to them, and then stab them in the back so bad that it retroactively turns every bit of joy they formerly derived from a series to disgust, you shouldn't be surprised when it doesn't end within a year.
It also needs to be understood that this isn't just about ME3 though that is where a line is being specifically drawn, it's also about EA/Bioware's other flubs... "Dragon Age 2" and "The Old Republic Online" inspired their own degree of anger, and really when they pushed things with the ME3 ending it all kind of exploded. It's important to understand this is the end result of a pattern of behavior, not in response to one specific incident. If EA/Bioware wants to win back some of it's support it needs to start making meaningful gestures... not the borderline insult that was the "extended ending".
